I was in a small village pub in England one Boxing Day. A man at the table next to ours handed a £10 note to his sons, who were about 8-10 years old. They went

I was in a small village pub in England one Boxing Day. A man at the table next to ours handed a £10 note to his sons, who were about 8-10 years old. They went to the bar and asked for two Fantas or something like that. The bartender said "I can't serve you, you need to be 16". Silence fell. It was a small room, and we'd all heard the boys ask. The old man at the end of the bar said, "You'll serve the boys, John, or else you won't be seeing me in here again." The boys got their Fantas. (Checking the law now, the boys were clearly accompanied, and I see no reason the bartender shouldn't have served them. I think it may have been forbidden before 2003, when the rules distinguished between children "at the bar" or not, rather than the current rules which distinguish between accompanied and unaccompanied children. But even then, the bartender would have been applying a 'rough city bar' approach to a posh village pub.)